ATHENA
Award Program
The
ATHENA Award Program was created in 1982 by the Chamber
of Commerce in Lansing, Michigan, to focus on outstanding
professional and business women, and to encourage the opening
of leadership opportunities for women in the community's
workplaces.
Visit
your local Chamber of Commerce and support your local business
women by attending the ATHENA Award Program near you!
•Women
make up more than 51 percent of the American population
and nearly 47 percent of the labor force in 2004.
•In 2002, women owned 6.5 million or 28.2 percent of nonfarm U.S. firms.
More than 14 percent of these women-owned firsts were employers, with 7.1 million
workers and $173.7 billion in annual payroll.
• Women-owned firms accounted for 6.5 percent of total employment in U.S.
firms in 2002 and 4.2 percent of total receipts.
• Almost 80 percent of women-owned firms had receipts totaling less than
$50,000 in both 1997 and 2002. Total receipts for firms in this under-$50,000
group constituted about 6 percent of total women-owned business receipts in both
years.
• The 7,240 women-owned first with 100 employees or more accounted for
$275 billion in gross receipts or 34.2 percent of total receipts of women-owned
employer firms in 2002.
• The largest shares of women-owned business receipts were in wholesale
and retail trade and manufacturing in both 1997 and 2002.
• According to 2002 data, significant proportions of women-owned businesses
were in professional, scientific and technical services, and in health care and
social assistance, but the share of receipts in these businesses was smaller
than in the trades and manufacturing.
• Between 1997 and 2002, the numbers of women-owned firms overall increased
by 19.8 percent of women-owned employer firms by 8.3 percent.
•Firms owned by women increased employment by 70,000; those owned by men
lost 1 million employees; those owned jointly by men and women lost 2.6 million;
and publicly held and other firms not identified by gender of ownership increased
employment by 10.9 million between 1997 and 2002.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
Statistical
Excerpts from:
Women in Business, 2006 A Demographic Review of Women’s Business Ownership
Ying Lowrey, Office of Economic Research, Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small
Business Administration 2006. [48] pages. View
the full PDF here.
Welcome
to another celebration of successful business women in 
Published
in MiBiz February 18, 2008